Woman Sentenced To Life In Prison With No Parole For Killing Her Co-Worker

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJZ)– Brittany Norwood is headed to prison. She will spend her life behind bars for murdering 30-year-old Jayna Murray inside the Lululemon clothing shop where the two worked.

Mike Hellgren has more on the Murray family’s search for closure.

Brittany Norwood will spend the rest of her life in prison for one of the most notorious, brutal and bizarre murders ever in Montgomery County. Norwood stabbed her co-worker, former Johns Hopkins student Jayna Murray, more than 300 times last year at the Lululemon store in Bethesda where they worked.

She then concocted a story that masked men attacked and raped them. It quickly fell apart under mounting forensic evidence.

“With Brittany not being allowed to walk on the streets, that is one person that, as a society, we don’t have to worry about,” Jayna Murray’s mother, Phyllis Murray, said.

Jayna Murray’s father told the judge he would never forgive Norwood, that he has not moved away from rage. He asked that Norwood never be allowed to walk the streets.

“It was absolutely the right sentence under Maryland law,” David Murray, Jayna Murray’s father, said.

Norwood was in tears when she addressed the court for the first time. She told the victim’s family she was sorry and she said she knew there was nothing she could do to take their pain away.

As many in the courtroom wept, Murray’s mother described how the killing plunged her family into deep despair. And Norwood’s loved ones described how the murder shattered their family as they begged the judge for lenience.

“I was shocked and thought that in the light of the tragedy, they had admitted to some extent that she had done this crime,” State Attorney John McCarthy said. “She virtually took no responsibility for this crime today. To me, that is another aggravating factor that makes the sentence from Judge Greenberg absolutely appropriate.”

McCarthy called Norwood a pathological liar. The judge said he had few doubts she could be rehabilitated.

Norwood’s brother also spoke at the sentencing Friday, and he said his sister was not a horrible person. He prayed for some glimmer of hope but the judge did not show Brittany Norwood any mercy.

Murray’s family says she will always be alive in their hearts and they miss her more than words can say.

Mike Hellgren

WJZ general assignment reporter Mike Hellgren came to Maryland's News Station in the spring of 2004 from KARK-TV, an NBC affiliate station in Little Rock, Arkansas where he worked as a general assignment reporter, as well as fill-in anchor. Solid...

This was a vicious pre-meditated crime. I cannot even begin to fathom why she deserves an opportunity for parole. This woman is a cold-blooded murderer. Lock her up and throw the key away. I am all for redemption, but this crime was chillingly evil.

Unfortunately, the family needs to understand that sometimes, your baby isn’t so innocent. SHE STABBED, CUT, BEAT 331 TIMES!!!!!!
hELLO?!!!! That’s A LOT of times!
Absolutely she is guilty & let her get the death penalty period, or if she gets life she should NOT get parole. Her soul will burn in hell forever anyway.

This disgrace to society is NOT “a good person” nor is she ” worthy of a chance”. SOMEONE’S DAUGHTER IS DEAD!!! look how many wounds the victim has.
That is true you cannot rehabilitate a broken record…..good riddance!

Well folks, and Jaynes family – This is a Real Nut Case that was running loose and some of us never knew it. Yeah Sanford, she does look weird and strange. Crazy and Insane is what it is. However, She WILL GET HERS IN JAIL… No Doubt!! She has a long stay!!! It’s All Coming Back to her, and her family will probably suffer as well for this Demonic act of their child. What in the hell was she thinking, where she couldn’t stop after the first stabbing? Jayne never had a chance. Poor baby. Let us all be careful of our surroundings, choose our friends wisely and stay away from those with Evil in their hearts, eyes and minds! My heart goes out to Jaynes family and friends, plus All of you are in my prayers everyday! Stay Strong!

Right sentence??? Are you kidding me.. While good people die, ppl like this are left to inhabit the world. Now we are paying her $30,000 a year for what she did. She’s better off than those less fortunate… She has no right to live, but a right to die in the most brutal fashion. Waterboarding would be a gift and a blessing. Plenty of us are tired of footing the bill for some psycopath to get 3 hots and a cot… Some of your perceptions on how good we treat our convicted is disturbing…

This freak should have gotten the death penalty.. Now, you, me and every other tax payer has to pay $30K/year to keep her a*s alive in a jail cell. Let’s see …… that is probably at least 30-40 years?.. At $30K/year, you and I are forking over approx. $1million dollars to keep this worthless POS alive. That is not a fair sentence. Sure, she is off the street but why should she deserve a chance to live and get free room and board, free healthcare and lots of other ‘freebies’ if she so chooses? How pathetic

they mention that the young lady was stabbed but i wonder what lead to the stabbing. What makes sense that these two women did not like each other one bit to a point that it lead to this. They got into one fierce arguement and it went too far. Who has not felt so angery that they felt like kicking someones but. that is why companies need to train there employees on what to do when you encounter this type of problem at the work place. Im just shocked that it made yahoo when the murder of the family in was it in vermont where the couple was tortured daugthers raped then the two men set the house on fire. Both of them got the death sentence. now thats news.

This is more than an argument. This is inhumane and this woman is going to keep killing if let out. I am glad she got life without parole. We need to keep savages like her out of society. May God have mercy on her soul.

The dead girl caught the murdering girl stealing and reported her. It wasn’t just a tiff. And yes, there are people at work I would love to never see again, but I don’t beat and stab them and leave over 300 marks on their body. Maybe you should stick to fashion.

the difference is we do not act on it… like stabbing someone 300 times… As a hunter I know the difference between a kill shot and just dang psycho… She stabbed her enough to be coated in blood, not a spritz but to the value of bathing in it there would have been that much blood. It’s not a company’s responsibility to teach someone how to be civil and sane. That comes from family when values are taught.

“On several different levels this case exemplified the worst of human behavior,” Judge Greenberg said, from the “cold blooded, calculated” way Norwood committed the crime, to the “callous indifference of the people who worked at the APPLE STORE who heard this happening and didn’t do a blessed thing.”

You heard the Judge. DID YOU KNOW Apple has not sent so much as a sympathy card to my friend’s family, let alone made a donation to the Jayna Murray Foundation. Did you know that Apple’s earnings = GDP of Tunisia. So, please pen a letter to Apple, SHARE this on your page… go viral. make accountability cool. iThanks

She is a horrible person and life imprisonment is too good for her. It should be a Life for a life. Why waste our tax dollars for the rest of her life. A lethal injection would fix the whole situation.